


Romantic

by Yeomanrand



Series: Rand's Fic Promptly Fills [18]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Community: fic_promptly, Gen, Internal Monologue, POV Male Character, POV Third Person, Poetry, Present Tense, Short, Short One Shot, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 16:56:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9451160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yeomanrand/pseuds/Yeomanrand
Summary: Fic_Promptly prompt: Criminal minds, Spencer Reid, reading romantic poems





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Prisca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prisca/gifts).



Every time Spencer mentions a poem, or identifies an unsub's quotation as belonging to one, the team are surprised. They've been working together for so many years now, and still: faint widenings of the eyes, tiny partings of the lips. All the little signs he can add up; emotional mathematics.

He wonders how long it would take them to realize what he was doing if he were to start only speaking in snippets of poetry himself, draw from Neruda or Wordsworth, Chaucer or Barbauld. Or if they'd overlook it, because in their eyes he is always awkward Spenser, gangly and too young. They forget.

_My struggle is harsh and I come back_  
_with eyes tired_  
_at times from having seen_  
_the unchanging earth_

They forget. Maybe they are too close to each other, but Spenser feels the change in himself like the seasons, his mother's autumn climbing slowly toward winter and himself after her. Helpless as an infant to resist her wake, so many things out of his control. Past, future.

The poems are the present, and he gives them to himself again and again because the words on paper are far less likely to draw claws and rend his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'ed; concrit welcome.
> 
> Also, I have only seen seasons 1-3 of Criminal Minds, but I have family who have happily told me about All The Bad Things that will happen.
> 
> The quotation in the middle is from [Your Laughter](https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/your-laughter/#content) by Pablo Neruda.


End file.
